Spring Break '07 - Part 4: KISM-65J
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Our departure from the Orlando area was just as pleasant as our arrival. The path ATC gave us took us a stone's throw from the giant mouse ear lake as we climbed out of Kissimmee and we were soon turned direct Jacksonville. Just north of Daytona Beach, I heard the controller working a jetliner heading north calling me out as traffic for him. Shortly afterwards, he called me with "MD80 1000 feet below, same direction." Sure enough, coming below my port stabilizer was the MD80 catching up fast. I called "in sight" and the controller asked me to let him know when the jet was far enough ahead to begin climbing. Huh! My comfort was important to him. I waited until the '80 was 1.5-2 miles ahead and called the controller to let him know he could climb the jet. Why was I less concerned about wake turbulence? Because we were dealing with smooth but stiff westerly winds of nearly 40 knots at 9000 feet. I had no doubt his wake would be well to my right by the time I reached where his path crossed mine.
Not long afterward we watched the last of the sun slip beneath the horizon. The rest of the flight was quite smooth despite the high winds from the West. We got cleared direct Wrens passing Jacksonville, but Augusta approach kept us high until very close to the field so we ended up doing a descending turn around the WCES TV tower (that's the button hook seen on the flight path).
It got rather cool for this time of year. We went from temperatures in the 70's (F) in Orlando to 40's in Wrens. I didn't have such a bad time since I packed jeans and a jacket, but the wife and kid had to make a Wal-Mart run the next day.
There wasn't much of anything interesting to watch on the flight up, so the video attachment shows some of the clouds we played with during our trip.